Pregnant and Productive Campaign

These babies won't cost you your job or hit your pay packet

But for 30,000 women a year, having a baby costs them their job.

Nearly half of all women who are pregnant at work experience some form of discrimination.

A fifth lose their job, or lose out on pay or promotion, simply for being pregnant.

The figures come from ground-breaking new research commissioned by the EOC for its investigation into pregnancy discrimination in the British workplace.

Our Pregnant and Productive campaign is calling for an end to this discrimination. We are working with the Government, employers, trade unions and the others to find workable solutions, so that pregnancy can be a more positive experience for all concerned.

Olympic gold medal athelete Denise Lewis is backing the campaign having suffered first hand from discrimination whilst pregnant. "Women should not suffer at work for just being pregnant. I would urge everyone to get behind the 'Pregnant and Productive' campaign and pledge their support."

The Equal Opportunities Commission Pregnant and Productive campaign highlights shocking new statistics on the true scale of discrimination faced by women when they are pregnant, on maternity leave or when they return to work.  We launched a GB-wide investigation into this issue in September 2003, because of the high volume of calls to the EOC helpline about problems at work during pregnancy and maternity and the large number of pregnancy-related employment tribunal claims. 

The campaign aims to build support for action to be taken so that pregnancy can be managed more constructively in the workplace. Our campaign pages invite anyone concerned about the issue to pledge their support, visitors can also post their comments on the issue, take part in the pregnancy test and keep up to date on all the campaign news. The campaign will culminate with the publication of the final report if the investigation later this year.

The EOC commissioned independent research amongst more than 1,000 women who had recently given birth and worked whilst pregnant. 1,006 women with a child aged between 9 months and 2 years who were employees at some stage during their pregnancy were interviewed by telephone during May and June 2004. Findings were weighted to the profile of mothers with a child aged under one taken from the Labour Force Survey within two age bands - 16-30 and 31+. The research, Incidence of Pregnancy Related Discrimination, was carried out for the EOC by IFF Research.

In September of last year the interim report of the EOC's was published. Tip of the Iceberg is still available to download. The report examines how the responsibilities, costs and benefits of pregnancy are currently shared between employers, the state and individual women and their families.

The findings from the report recommend that the law needs to be clearer and easily accessible and that both families and employers require more support. The EOC has taken into account women's need to be able to combine work, motherhood and practical difficulties faced by employers in managing pregnancy in the workplace. We also recognise the active role fathers take in looking after their children.

EOC Wales have published their own report on pregnancy discrimination called Time to Deliver, Putting an end to pregnancy discrimination in Wales.